Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians

US: Nation Books, 2008. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and journalist Laila Al-Arian spent the past year interviewing over fifty veter ans to expose the patterns of the occupation in Iraq. The testimonies of th ese soldiers--many of who remain deeply traumatized by their experiences--u ncover how the very conduct of the war and occupation have turned the Ameri can forces into agents of terror for most Iraqis. Collateral Damage is organized around key military operations--Convoys, Che ckpoints, Detentions, Raids, Suppressive Fire, and "Hearts and Minds." Mili tary convoys traveling at tremendous speeds through towns have become train s of death. Civilians are routinely run over or shot to death. Soldiers fir e upon Iraqi vehicles with impunity at checkpoints. Late-night detentions b ased on shoddy intelligence terrify women, traumatize children, and radical ize the young men caught in their dragnet. These soldiers have found the moral courage to speak out about the true nature of a war that has become one long, unchecked atrocity, and has given rise to the instability, sectarian violence and chaos that we witness today in Iraq.